Several hurt in clash over Vietnam cemetery: witnesses

May 6, 2010 by Webmaster

Several Vietnamese Catholics were injured and dozens detained by police in a dispute with authorities over a cemetery, witnesses said Wednesday.

The clash between residents in Con Dau parish, near the central Vietnamese city of Danang, and a large group of police, happened Tuesday when the residents tried to bury an 82-year-old woman, one man told AFP.

"When we nearly reached the cemetery, we were stopped by police and security people," said the witness, 83, who did not want to be identified.

"The police took the coffin away."

He said police fired into the air and beat people with batons, leaving several hurt.

Another witness, a young man, said the police were armed with batons, guns and electric prods.

Several people were beaten "as if they were animals," said the man, also unwilling to be named.

The witnesses said about 60 or 70 people were detained.

Local authorities could not be reached for comment and it was not immediately clear whether the detainees had already been released.

There has been a long-running series of church-state land disputes in Vietnam but a foreign diplomat said this case was different because the cemetery was not owned by the church itself.

The government had a long-standing plan to build an "eco-city" on the land and would have to move about 400 families as well as the cemetery, said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

"It's been a point of contention for several months now," he said, but the issue only came to a head when somebody died and needed burial.

The second witness said authorities want to relocate the graves to another cemetery about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

"We don't want to move the graves to such a faraway place," he said.

Land disputes in general -- and residents' claims that they have been cheated out of fair compensation -- have in recent years become the most common cause of protests in Vietnam, a rural country that is rapidly industrialising.

There have also been demonstrations by Catholics seeking the return of Church property seized, along with many other buildings and farms, more than 50 years ago when communists took power in what was then North Vietnam.

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SOURCE: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/177010/several-hurt-in-clash-over-v...